Sol T Plaatje: A Life in Letters

xxii, 360pp, with monochrome frontispiece and occasional further monochrome portraits in text. In brown cloth-covered boards with gilt titles. Bronze satin ribbon marker bound in. 8vo. Cloth very slightly rounded at spine ends. Internally neat, clean, bright and tight. In its original dust jacket, very slightly bumped in places along upper edge, slightly creased at top of inner flap.

Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876-1932) was one of the best known political and literary figures of his generation. He spoke out against the oppressive regime of the South African government in the early decades of the 20th century and is remembered for a number of important books, including his diary kept during the Siege of Mafeking; and as a political writer and activist, his campaigns around the Land Act of 1913 helped preserve the Setswana from extinction. His letters also record his travels to London and the United States. Those of his letters written in Setswana are accompanied here with an English translation. Very hard to find volume.